Africa News
Zimbabwe "damages Africa's image," Merkel says (Extra)
Dec 8, 2007, 14:13 GMT
Lisbon - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on European and African leaders Saturday to push for a renewal of democracy in Zimbabwe.
'The current state of Zimbabwe damages the image of the new Africa. Because this is so, we must take the chance here, in this framework, to put all our efforts together into strengthening democracy,' Merkel told the leaders of 26 European and 53 African states.
Among her audience was Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is regarded in Europe as having driven his country to political, agricultural and financial collapse. He has been banned from entering the EU since 2002, but the ban was waived for the summit.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to come to the summit when Mugabe was invited.
But despite that boycott, 'we, the whole EU, are unified in our assessment of the situation in the country,' Merkel stressed.
'Zimbabwe's situation concerns us all, in Europe as well as in Africa,' she added.
Mugabe had been widely expected to respond to Merkel's speech, but in the event he did not react to it, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told journalists after the speech.
Merkel's speech came as the official European contribution to a debate on human rights and good governance.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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Sally Ntombi - Harare, ZimbabweDec 8th, 2007 - 14:56:26
Mugabe does not tarnish Africa's image. The truth is that Africa already has a bad image and the only contribution for Mugabe is that he simply re-inforces the bad image. Africa rulers are mostly dictators who reign terror upon their citizens and steal state assets. Africa's leadership is a disgrace to Humanity and their silence on human rights abuses is a disgrace. They even remain silent whilst Arab jajaweed slaughter black christians in Southern Sudan.
In Zimbabwe, zanupf have looted our country, brutaised our people and they continue to lie about their atrocities. The stupid members of the EU like to sit at the table with the devil just to get their share of Zimbabwe's resources. The statement made by the German Chancellor is limp, to say the least. So to those attending this so-called Africa-EU summit, remember the 4 million Zimbabweans who are starving and another 4 million Zimbabweans who have been forced to flee as a result of that meglomaniac you have invited to your summit. It is nothing short of an insult to us, the people of Zimbabwe. As Mugabe says, Go hang!
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